Small plane crash lands on street, bursts into flames in South Bay

Two people were critically injured when a small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in the South Bay overnight.

The single-engine Piper PA-24 went down around 12:40 a.m. Friday on West 126th Street near Hawthorne Boulevard in Hawthorne.

Two people managed to get out of the plane but were listed in critical condition after suffering major injuries including severe burns.

Gerald Johnson heard the crash and rushed to help the victims.

“Loud crash. I didn’t think it was a plane because, who’s thinking it’s a plane? … Myself and a couple other gentlemen helped pull the man away from the wreckage. Hopefully getting him away from that before it exploded,” Johnson said.

The victims were said to be conscious and breathing when they were taken from the scene in an ambulance.

Video showed most of the plane was destroyed but the tail and one wing could still be seen.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the plane crashed shortly after taking off from Hawthorne Municipal Airport about two miles away from where it went down.

The plane was registered out of Culver City but it was unclear where it was headed, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesperson said.

“The good news is it didn’t hurt anybody on the ground … It looks like minor damage to anything nearby, so we got lucky with where they placed that plane down,” said Fire Department Capt. Sheila Kellher Berkoh.

The cause of the crash was unknown.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced earlier that NTSB officials were handling the investigation.

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